


the thing we have inside

by CycloneRachel



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Hugs, Light Angst, Mentioned Kara Danvers, One Shot, references to seasons 3 and 4, set in season 5
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-07
Updated: 2019-10-07
Packaged: 2020-11-26 13:44:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20931203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CycloneRachel/pseuds/CycloneRachel
Summary: Almost a year after their first major clash, Brainy has an epiphany.





	the thing we have inside

It isn’t entirely accurate to say that the realization hits him.

Rather, it’s when he and Alex are out on a mission together, along with some other agents who’ve already been briefed, and are in position, waiting for further orders from Alex. She’s just given him his assignment, and he’s echoed it back to her (he’s taken to doing so, to give her peace of mind about the two of them knowing what they’re supposed to be doing at any given moment, and making sure those actions coordinate) and just when she lightly grips his arm, giving him a “Good work, Agent Dox” before letting go, he understands.

But he waits until afterwards, when they’re back at the DEO, to talk to her.

“Alex?” he says, walking towards her with his hands put together once everything has calmed down and she’s checked everyone over to make sure they’re okay. “Director Danvers?”

She turns around and looks at him, seeming surprised to see him smiling.

“What is it, Brainy?”

“Earlier today, I had… perhaps, I could say, a revelation.” He says. “And it had to do with you.”

“Oh?” she asks, raising an eyebrow. “And what’s that?”

“Simply that, when you were assigning tasks for everyone, and gave me mine, and excused me afterwards… I realized- _Alex, we’ve found our rhythm_.”

And Alex- she could just cry.

She won’t. Not in front of him- or any of the agents she knows are probably watching them at the moment.

But Brainy doesn’t know (or maybe he could’ve inferred) the months it took just for the two of them to realize they weren’t on the same page in the first place. The months Alex spent talking with Kara, trying to figure out ways to talk to him, and to resist the urge to punch him in the face.

_He’s unapproachable,_ she had said. _He’s stubborn, and he always does either too little or too much, and he always thinks he’s right. Even though he is- except in the area of us actually communicating with each other._

_You’ll find a way,_ Kara had insisted. _He’s… really understanding, trust me. And a good listener. He cares, even if it doesn’t feel like it right away._

_You’re just biased because he helped you out of your mind-prison,_ Alex had told her. _He’s hardly listened to me for three months._

_No,_ she’d said. _He only helped me to realize that you- and how much I love you, and being your sister- is how I could get out of it. He needs time to adjust to this century, but when he gets it, you’ll be alright._

Alex had hugged her sister, then, even though she didn’t entirely believe her yet. She’d promised to keep an open mind, and be patient with him. It had been hard, and there were even days when she thought it was impossible. And when she found him in the DEO wearing Winn’s clothes, after the two of them had been arguing on and off throughout the day- well, that had just pushed everything over the edge.

But that day was also a turning point for them, that they had to reach in order to make progression in their professional relationship. She had to see him there, drinking something from the Big Belly Burger near Winn’s place and playing with Winn’s Nerf gun, and wearing one of Winn’s cardigans.

(Which, like how he’d styled his hair right then, didn’t really suit him)

It was then that Alex had come to the realization that she didn’t hate Brainy anymore. She never had, definitely not because he’d helped heal her sister, but she thought she did, especially in the three months leading up to that day. Every day Winn was gone and Brainy was in his place, she’d resented Brainy a little bit more- punishing him, as she had said, for not being Winn.

Because Brainy was Winn’s replacement, practically. They were similar, which was perhaps why they’d argued so much (although, and she’d never admit this to either of them, she had picked up a tension between them that was more than just rivalry), but Brainy was not Winn. He would never be, but he was still giving his all for the DEO and for Alex and Kara, and it was up to Alex to deal with it.

So when the resentment fell away, when the wall between them finally came down, it was replaced with guilt. Alex saw him there, confessing that he was trying to change himself to help her better and that he missed his friends too, and only empathized with him. She looked at him, and saw a being much like her sister- another lonely alien, trying to fit in but never quite doing so, and dealing with a great loss. She saw him as Kara had, earlier that summer, and once she realized that, she hadn’t resented him since.

And through it all- through the villains they’d faced, the difficult situations they’d both been put in, how both of them had been compromised in different ways- they’d remained that way. All the hatred and resentment was too far away to remember, and frankly, Alex didn’t want to.

“I know.” Brainy starts, interrupting her thoughts and pausing in a way that makes her think he’d been considering the same things she had, “That there have been times this year when we haven’t been ourselves, so to speak.”

“Tell me about it.” Alex answers, heart aching for him. She doesn’t know how much he remembers of his Alignment, just as she’s still trying to sort through her own memories of her mind-wipe, but she still wishes she could’ve done something for him with relation to that. “Well… you don’t have to.”

“Understood.” Brainy says, nodding. “But the point is, despite those times, as well as during them, I have still felt as though I could trust you. And that, for me, is an invaluable feeling.”

Alex smiles, placing a hand on his arm again.

“I know.” She answers. “And that’s true for me, also.”

It’s easy then, effortless even, to pull him into a hug, holding him right there in the DEO with nothing holding her back. And as his hands settle on her back, as he hugs her just as close, she can tell they really have found their rhythm.

She hopes, then, that it’ll last a good long time, before it has to change again.


End file.
